3 ms·

Am I missing something? It seems to me the best thing this guy and the people who want to 'help' him could have done is just leave the whole thing alone. On i

Am I missing something? It seems to me the best thing this guy and the people who want to 'help' him could have done is just leave the whole thing alone. On its own this is just another in an endless string of 'One weird fact this amazing kid discovered!' stories that will be forgotten next week if not tomorrow - like the ink saving science fair kid from March [1]. People who matter will find this guy and his discovery through the paper [2] he published. People reading the viral sources of the story about this girl and 'her discovery' will forget it all in the time it takes to click on through to '10 Celebrities Who Look Like Their Pets!'. Also, the real problem here seems to be plain old bad/breathless media coverage more than anything else. 1: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/living/student-money-saving-typeface-garamond-schools/ http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/living/student-money-saving-ty... 2: http://absci.fiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Jud-and-Layman-2012-JEMBE.pdf http://absci.fiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Jud-and-Laym...

jmount 12y ago
The original researcher spoke out and complained, so I it is safe to assume they to some degree consider discussing this helpful.
gph 12y ago
>Am I missing something? Yes, integrity. The easy thing probably would have been to leave this whole thing alone. But the easy thing to do isn't automatically the right thing to do.
- incision 12y ago
  >'Yes, integrity.' I'm confused, do you mean to be so needlessly insulting?
  - gph 12y ago
    You misunderstand, I'm not saying you personally lack integrity. I'm saying integrity is what is missing from your consideration of this issue. Integrity and honesty are important values that are worth standing for even if it's not the most pragmatic course of action.
jjoonathan 12y ago
Yes, you are missing something: the narrative that the kid made a scientific discovery is spreading so far and wide that it could very plausibly become a PR/SEO problem for the grad student who is on the verge of launching his scientific career (the single time that this sort of thing matters most to a scientist). > there is now a petition online demanding that Arrington’s name be added as an author to Jud’s most recent scientific publication This goes far beyond "one wierd fact" headlines. Authorship requests and articles published in scientific venues (CFLAS) bring this issue into the scope of things that academics care about. People who 1: matter and 2: have time will not be fooled. #2 is the sticking point. There are many gatekeepers to prestige in the academic world (journals, conference hosts, departments inviting each other around for guest lectures, people running outreach programs, etc). Many of them don't have the time or the inclination to get to the bottom of PR scandals. The ones that do have the time (e.g. hiring committees) pay attention to metrics representing the opinions of those who don't have time, so ignoring the problem won't make it go away. He is doing the very minimum required to avoid being hurt by someone else's lie. The way I see it, he has handled the issue with admirable delicacy.
- incision 12y ago
  >'This goes far beyond "one wierd fact" headlines. Authorship requests and articles published in scientific venues (CFLAS) bring this issue into the scope of things that academics care about.' Not really. Worrying about one of thousands if not millions of online petitions [1] that anyone can create is on par with fretting over whatever foolishness someone publishes on their blog. There are a lot of people quoting and re-quoting that petition claim with anger and horror but there's not a single link to it and Google uncovers nothing. I would not surprise me if such a petition exists, but whether it matters at all is highly questionable. >'Many of them don't have the time or the inclination to get to the bottom of PR scandals.' What scandal? The story of the girl will/would be forgotten tomorrow. It only becomes anything resembling scandal Streisand style as a result of the response [2]. 1: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/outlaw-offending-prophets-major-religions/94kL1tsN https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/outlaw-offending-p... 2: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/23/marine-biologist-stolen-idea/13039871/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/23/marine-biologi...
lotharbot 12y ago
> "Am I missing something?" Possibly that some people are accusing the grad student, who actually did the original research, as plagiarizing the little girl. Neither she nor her father have, to my knowledge, corrected those critics.

jmount 12y ago

The original researcher spoke out and complained, so I it is safe to assume they to some degree consider discussing this helpful.

gph 12y ago

>Am I missing something? Yes, integrity. The easy thing probably would have been to leave this whole thing alone. But the easy thing to do isn't automatically the right thing to do.

incision 12y ago
>'Yes, integrity.' I'm confused, do you mean to be so needlessly insulting?
- gph 12y ago
  You misunderstand, I'm not saying you personally lack integrity. I'm saying integrity is what is missing from your consideration of this issue. Integrity and honesty are important values that are worth standing for even if it's not the most pragmatic course of action.

jjoonathan 12y ago

Yes, you are missing something: the narrative that the kid made a scientific discovery is spreading so far and wide that it could very plausibly become a PR/SEO problem for the grad student who is on the verge of launching his scientific career (the single time that this sort of thing matters most to a scientist). > there is now a petition online demanding that Arrington’s name be added as an author to Jud’s most recent scientific publication This goes far beyond "one wierd fact" headlines. Authorship requests and articles published in scientific venues (CFLAS) bring this issue into the scope of things that academics care about. People who 1: matter and 2: have time will not be fooled. #2 is the sticking point. There are many gatekeepers to prestige in the academic world (journals, conference hosts, departments inviting each other around for guest lectures, people running outreach programs, etc). Many of them don't have the time or the inclination to get to the bottom of PR scandals. The ones that do have the time (e.g. hiring committees) pay attention to metrics representing the opinions of those who don't have time, so ignoring the problem won't make it go away. He is doing the very minimum required to avoid being hurt by someone else's lie. The way I see it, he has handled the issue with admirable delicacy.

incision 12y ago
>'This goes far beyond "one wierd fact" headlines. Authorship requests and articles published in scientific venues (CFLAS) bring this issue into the scope of things that academics care about.' Not really. Worrying about one of thousands if not millions of online petitions [1] that anyone can create is on par with fretting over whatever foolishness someone publishes on their blog. There are a lot of people quoting and re-quoting that petition claim with anger and horror but there's not a single link to it and Google uncovers nothing. I would not surprise me if such a petition exists, but whether it matters at all is highly questionable. >'Many of them don't have the time or the inclination to get to the bottom of PR scandals.' What scandal? The story of the girl will/would be forgotten tomorrow. It only becomes anything resembling scandal Streisand style as a result of the response [2]. 1: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/outlaw-offending-prophets-major-religions/94kL1tsN https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/outlaw-offending-p... 2: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/23/marine-biologist-stolen-idea/13039871/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/23/marine-biologi...

lotharbot 12y ago

> "Am I missing something?" Possibly that some people are accusing the grad student, who actually did the original research, as plagiarizing the little girl. Neither she nor her father have, to my knowledge, corrected those critics.